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Isaiah Reassures King Ahaz

7In the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel went up to attack Jerusalem, but could not mount an attack against it. ²When the house of David heard that Aram had allied itself with Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz^* and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub,^* at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, ⁴and say to him, Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smouldering stumps of firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah. ⁵Because Aram—with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah—has plotted evil against you, saying, ⁶Let us go up against Judah and cut off Jerusalem^* and conquer it for ourselves and make the son of Tabeel king in it; ⁷therefore thus says the Lord God:
It shall not stand,
   and it shall not come to pass.
⁸ For the head of Aram is Damascus,
   and the head of Damascus is Rezin.

(Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered, no longer a people.)
⁹ The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
   and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you do not stand firm in faith,
   you shall not stand at all.

Psalm 48

1  Great is the Lord and highly to be praised, ♦︎
   in the city of our God.
2  His holy mountain is fair and lifted high, ♦︎
   the joy of all the earth.
3  On Mount Zion, the divine dwelling place, ♦︎
   stands the city of the great king.
4  In her palaces God has shown himself ♦︎
   to be a sure refuge.
5  For behold, the kings of the earth assembled ♦︎
   and swept forward together.
6  They saw, and were dumbfounded; ♦︎
   dismayed, they fled in terror.
7  Trembling seized them there;
      they writhed like a woman in labour, ♦︎
   as when the east wind shatters the ships of Tarshish.

Woes to Unrepentant Cities

20 Then he began to reproach the cities in which most of his deeds of power had been done, because they did not repent. ²¹‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. ²²But I tell you, on the day of judgement it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. ²³And you, Capernaum,
will you be exalted to heaven?
   No, you will be brought down to Hades.
For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. ²⁴But I tell you that on the day of judgement it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.’